#How to Get Away with Murder 3x12

[cedarxwing]

Hi, I'm new to the fandom and unsure who to ask my questions. I recently joined Tumblr and came across your posts while browsing the Hannibal meta tag. I have a few questions: What are Hannibal's feelings towards Bedelia and Alana? I remember Mads once said that Hannibal is in love with everyone on the show to some extent, so what exactly does love mean to him? Also, I'm having trouble understanding the line by Will: "You will only do that if I rejected you" (sorry, I paraphrased). I apologize if these are too many questions. Thanks in advance!

Hi, nonny, welcome to the fandom! <3

Regarding who Hannibal loves, you'll get different answers depending on who you ask. I firmly believe that Hannibal loves everyone he finds beautiful, inside and out. Alana and Bedelia certainly fit that criteria! Whether you interpret them as sex friends or romantic partners is up to you. (More thoughts on how Hannibal loves here.)

Personally, I'm a fan of Hannibal's S1 friendship with Alana. But as soon as he started dating her as an alibi, he was getting ready to let her go. (Before that, he kept her completely separate from his Ripper life for her safety... and also to keep her as a pristine character reference lol. Hannibal always has multiple motives for his friendships). I mean, he was willing to ditch her the instant Will suggested running away, so obviously he didn't view their relationship as a serious long-term thing. Tbh, I think he was mostly getting off on being in a love triangle with Will.

He was more serious about Bedelia because she had the killer instinct of a potential murder wife. He made a real go at trying to convince her to participate in his lifestyle (i.e. he wanted her to kill Dimmond in Antipasto). Sure, they weren't compatible in the end, but something tells me that the Bedelia leg dinner would've been just as romantic even without Will. 😏 I wrote about their relationship in detail here.

As for "You'd only do that if I rejected you": Hannibal knew Will would be drawn to him in prison and inevitably visit, giving him another chance to convince Will to be murder husbands. A second shot at Will is the only reason he'd ever surrender.

Will's 3x12 revelation that Hannibal was in love with him makes the "Goodbye, Hannibal" scene touching. He finally understood why Hannibal turned himself in. 🥲 But also, Will totally brings it up to rub Hannibal's failure in his face. Basically, "Aw, you actually love me... Have fun rotting in jail, loser. I'm going back home to my WIFE."

[augustheart]

fuck it stargirl episode ranking. yes! all thirty-nine of them!

3x03 "the blackmail": i don't have a cool justification i'm sorry i just love the crocks and i think the fight scene is fantastic. i don't even care that we can see the stuntpeople's faces it's absolutely delightful to me.

1x08 "shiv part two": ultimate comfort episode for me. what if two autistic people had to go undercover? what if a woman tried to fuck a man under a sink? just a few of the many questions asked by this episode

2x04 "summer school chapter four": crusher and paula should be allowed to do whatever they want. also the scene where dickie gets in an argument with a child in a bookstore is pretty good

1x11 "shining knight": this is the best episode of the show. like full stop. this is the best one. it isn't the highest rated on imdb. it isn't my favorite. but it is 100% the best episode of the series.

3x12 "the last will and testament of sylvester pemberton": i have probably Never gone crazier at an episode of television in my life. getting to the ending is excruciating because the first chunk is a "pat experiences ableism" simulator but oh baby. when the musical sting hits it hits

1x02 "s.t.r.i.p.e.": this episode is nearly perfect. why is there a two minute long one-take sequence in the middle of it? don't ask questions

1x01 "stargirl"/"pilot": this is one of the best cape show pilots of all time. i think doom patrol's is better but it's easily on the flash pilot level, probably higher. tells you everything you need to know: courtney rules. pat has autism. if you celebrate christmas you WILL die of supervillains attacking you. what more can you ask for

2x03 "summer school chapter three": mike should be allowed to do whatever he wants whenever. you can tell how much fun everyone had shooting this so even if luke wilson is Not looking at his mark in the slightest it's still good.

1x10 "brainwave jr": i get why this is the highest ranked episode on imdb but it is funny that it set the tone for james robinson writing episodes where he kills people in a tunnel. the scene at the beginning with barb where she's struggling not to break down is an under-appreciated bit that is so fucking good.

1x03 "icicle": the tonal shift is great. i wish hootie had come back.

1x05 "hourman and doctor mid-nite": ending scene alone puts this here. thank you cameron gellman

1x06 "the justice society": i really like it when crusher throws paula as a weapon at a group of children

2x06 "summer school chapter six": the fight choreography is off the charts. i wish that isaac's actor knew how to act and eclipso didn't run away like that.

2x08 "summer school chapter eight": oh my g-d. oh my g-d. jesus christ. oh my fucking g-d

2x02 "summer school chapter two": dickie's entrance to the show means that despite how unmoved i am by much of this episode i will forever adore it. he is so deeply weird from second one.

3x02 "the suspects": i could watch dickie make fun of anybody for hours at a time

3x07 "infinity inc part one": i could watch dickie make fun of anybody for hours at a time

3x08 "infinity inc part two": i could watch dickie make fun of anybody for hours at a time. also CARCHARO MENTIONED

2x11 "summer school chapter eleven": courtney clapping at cindy and going "AND HOW DID THAT GO FOR YOU?" about controlling eclipso after they both get stuck in the monster dimension is one of the funniest scenes in the show

3x13 "the reckoning": way better finale than other cape shows, which is fortunate for me and unfortunate for those other shows. just a really nice sendoff. i like that they bring it full circle by having kids murder someone in this one, too.

1x07 "shiv part one": the fight choreography in the courtney/cindy fight is so good. i think it's overlooked because it's a 1v1 fight but that spinning long take is really fantastic imo and i love the setting of the school gym outfitted for the dance.

1x04 "wildcat": yolanda baby :(

2x09 "summer school chapter nine": yet another episode that's a "pat experiences ableism" simulator and it is upsetting to watch but also john wesley shipp is there and it's quite well done all around. points detracted because whatever his name is that plays cameron can't act to save his life and his scene partner (an actual teenager) is absolutely killing it

3x01 "the murder": extremely good episode i love my friends i genuinely smile so big thinking about it

1x12 "stars and s.t.r.i.p.e. part one": i want to fuck crusher so bad for that garage scene and that's why it ranks higher than the s1 finale

1x13 "stars and s.t.r.i.p.e. part two": what if there was a liberalification beam.

3x11 "the haunting": obviously the setup of this episode makes me want to punch walls but artemis' screaming and breakdown at the end puts this a cut above other episodes

2x07 "summer school chapter seven": YOLANDA BABY :(

2x01 "summer school chapter one": i can't stop thinking about that person on reddit who accidentally watched this episode first and was like "why is the show so bad at exposition" not realizing it's because they didn't see season one

1x09 "brainwave": good episode ranked this low because of the evil dinner scene being one of the worst things put to film

2x10 "summer school chapter ten": dickie is really good in this but i'm not a huge fan of this conflict for pat and courtney. however i do enjoy pat getting heated for once

2x12 "summer school chapter twelve": pat torturing matt rules and i like when beth and charles metaphorically type on the same keyboard to hack something faster

3x10 "the killer": fine episode. ranked this low because the last four minutes of it never aired and definitely don't make me listen to classic decemberists song "we both go down together" on repeat

2x13 "summer school chapter thirteen": jakeem rules mike rules rick calling in a buddy to fight for him rules but i don't care about eclipso

3x04 "the evidence": we're getting into episodes i don't really care for. i do like charles though

3x09 "the monsters": i don't care about dctv cameron

3x06 "the betrayal": i don't care about dctv cameron. however pat enjoying lutefisk is good

3x05 "the thief": i don't care about dctv cameron

2x05 "summer school chapter five": It's Just Not A Very Good Episode Guys i don't know what more you want from me

if you read through all of this thanks. several of these are actually tied with each other to be honest so if parts of this seem interchangeable, that's why.

[televisionpromos]

How to Get Away with Murder 3x12 "Go Cry Somewhere Else" Sneak Peek - Courtroom tension is palpable as prosecutors prepare to enter a new charge against Annalise. Meanwhile, Nate finds evidence that could cast doubt on his innocence; and Oliver is brought in for questioning by detectives.

[ricamora-falahee]

Why are you crying? Did you even know Wes? Did any of you?

[princeescaluswords]

Jennifer Blake's first conversation with Scott in the first episode of season 3. I think it's not a reach to say she already knew of him being a werewolf at this point so it adds a different layer this rewatch. Her saying that she expects consistency and commitment and like maybe I'm digging too deep and giving Davis too much credit here but it makes me think of her past and how the alphas she knew veered off the path. Is she subtly trying to guide him here? To not end up like Deucalion and fall under his sway? Who knows!

And also, the murder of crows scene. We know it was actually her doing, using the mass death as a sacrifice to fuel her powers. The shot of her standing at the window with the oncoming murder reflected in the glass. Ominous but also foreshadowing maybe? Because we learn eventually she is the corrupted dark druid and she does an excellent job playing as the innocent schoolteacher. Telling the students to get down as the swarm bursts into the room and she even looks shaken up and out of it afterwards when asked if she's okay. But perhaps that was just her adjusting to this new energy she received. And we know she uses glamor to mask her true appearance so that view through the other side of the window with the ominous sight of hundreds of crows on the other. And she wears black and white in that scene.

You know I never thought about the possibility that Jennifer had an inkling of Scott's potential in those first scenes, but it seems reasonable. It's understandable, because I don't think that druids, even those serving as Emissaries, have some sort of special sense about werewolves. For example, I don't think that Deaton knew that Scott had been bit until the end of Heart Monitor (1x06). But, there is other information revealed in Season 3A which might make Jennifer different. Namely, Chris's revelation in Alpha Pact (3x11):

Chris: I'm sorry. But you're just gonna have to trust me on this. I knew for a long time she didn't just operate on the currents. She was in sync with them.

Scott, Stiles, and Allison all forged a connection with the Nemeton on the night Scott was bit, as was revealed in Lunar Ellipse (3x12), a connection that Jennifer already shared as we discovered in The Overlooked (3x10). Let's look at the text of Jennifer's comments about Scott falling back into old habits in Tattoo (3x01).

Jennifer: Resolutions are only good if you stick with them, Scott.

Scott: I will. I promise it won't be ephemeral.

I'm not sure if I can say one way or the other if she was fully conscious of the trio's importance at this point, because we see multiple instances of the Nemeton influencing people unconsciously (inspiring Lydia's tree drawing through her banshee powers and Scott's choice of tattoo) throughout the season but that might have been the Watsonian reason she brought up the importance of following through on promises, since she had "made a promise of my own ... to teach these monsters ..."

On the other hand, I also don't think that she caused the crow attack on the school on purpose. I think that the shock on her face during the assault was genuine, but it wasn't out of ignorance of what it could mean. She was connected to the telluric currents and the Nemeton, so she had a connection to the Preserve as well. Ravens and crows are exceedingly well known in folklore for delivering omens. I feel she was shocked because she was being warned. About what? What happened at the exact same moment the crows were attacking? Scott -- a potential True Alpha, linked to her through the Nemeton, and a component of her struggle with her enemies -- was meeting the Alpha Pack for the first time. The very next scene is where Scott helps Deucalion off the elevator and he clashes with Ennis.

One of the things I love about Teen Wolf is that it remains focused on the teenagers point of view. Scott and his pack don't know enough yet, so events seem scary and mysterious, and the show doesn't break away to give the audience a rundown on what it means. We can go back and then end and say -- oh, so that's what might have happened.

[jadelotusflower]

Robin Hood Rewatch: 3x12 - Something Worth Fighting For Part 1

So here we are at the end of the rewatch - it only took me two years! Since this was a two-parter I watched them together, and will post the final episode tomorrow.

This episode is mostly setup (with one obvious exception), but that doesn't mean I don’t have nits to pick! What has this rewatch been but an outlet for my own meandering complaints?

Robin has his ear (literally) to the Great North Road, and is about to shoot two arrows at the rider he hears, when Kate gives a sultry whisper in his ear “I bet you can’t do it with three” and WHAT THE FUCK AM I WATCHING?!?

I’m sorry, but given the last time we saw Robin shoot three arrows at once was after Marian’s apparent death on 1x13 this really feels like a kick in the teeth. What is the point of this opening? I suppose to remind us that - despite all evidence to the contrary - Robin and Kate are in some kind of relationship. Or to make me lose my lunch.

Kate places the arrow in his bow, and Robin unseats one of Prince John’s men from his horse.

He’s carrying a letter to Isabella saying that King Richard will return within the month, and his loyal troops gather at Loughborough (which just over the county in Leicestershire), and they need men to be ready for him. Robin has a surprisingly subdued reaction.

John and Much arrive to tell them Clun and Nettlestone have been cleared out of men - which means that Locksley is next.

I do kind of like the full circle that 1x12 started with announcing the return of the fake Richard, and 3x12 starts by announcing the return of the real one (even if it never actually happens).

Keith Allen has returned to the credits, and Clive Standen added (together with clip). We’re playing with a full deck to finish things off.

This episode is written by Ryan Craig, who penned the dull-as-dishwater Lost in Translation earlier this season. Because when choosing who to tap to write the penultimate episode of your series, you go with the guy whose claim to fame is a filler ep. At least the director is stalwart Matthew Evans, who directed among others 1x12 and 1x13, so there is some symmetry there as well.

In Locksley, we have Isabella’s new henchman Blamire (who has a deep gravelly voice) in charge. The gang rescue the men but for once Robin curbs his murderous instinct and doesn’t shoot him.

Archer arrives to see Isabella, and Blamire demonstrates his competence by recalling he was meant to hang in York and that Guy and Robin rescued him. Isabella orders his arrest, but he reveals they are siblings and uses the information Guy told him last episode to prove it.

@ravenya003​ pointed out that it’s possible Archer abandoned Guy and Robin for Isabella partly because he believes women are easier to manipulate, and he tries it on here, saying that between his power and her skill they’d be unstoppable, then playing the “sister, don’t forsake me” card when it doesn’t work.

Isabella continues to employ the power move of getting very close to the person she’s speaking to and then yelling in their face. She’s not having any of his guff  and orders him taken away.

But while they were getting weirdly up close and personal with each other, Archer stole a key and slips the guards.

Tuck and Robin have a very confusing conversation where Tuck wants to use the Locksley men to fight, and Robin wants to protect them. It’s almost like Ryan Craig didn’t read the script for 3x02 where they explicitly set up calling on the men to form an army.

Isabella is worried about failing Prince John and dying for it. But she knows her enemy, and that to get to Robin, she must go through the gang. And there is only one family member that’s available to her to exploit.

So we get the return of Rebecca with a weird little side braid - Maggie is sadly absent from this episode. But rather than do the obvious and hold her captive, Isabella gives her half a locket and tells her to plant it on Robin, to make Kate believe he still holds a candle for her.

Um, how does Isabella know about Robin and Kate? Is she just guessing?

It’s unclear if there’s a part of Isabella who does believe Robin “still loves” her or if it’s all for show - I lean towards the latter, because Isabella knows he never loved her to begin with. The potential was there, but the relationship was too short lived for her to actually believe it was anything more than it was, even if his betrayal cut her so very deeply. On the other hand, they’ve leaned full on into crazy ex-girlfriend (even though the situation’s a lot more nuanced than that) so who knows.

After a token refusal, Rebecca capitulates and rather than tell Kate about Isabella’s machinations, dutifully gives Kate the locket and then hides the other half in Robin’s bag.

Ah, Rebecca. Terrible to the end. It’s really very sad, because Robin seems genuinely touched that she hugs him.

A far more interesting dilemma for Kate would be Rebecca planning to take Maggie and leave for somewhere safer, and Kate torn between duty to her family and desire to stay with the outlaws. But the show really can’t let go of the Isabella/Robin/Kate drama.

Back at camp, the locket half falls out of Robin’s bag and Guy recognises it as Isabella’s, and this actually sows more discord than she actually intended, because now Robin thinks there’s a spy among them. Would he have been so quick to turn on Allan later if he hadn’t found the locket?

Archer meets some dude in The Trip, and apparently he is familiar with Nottingham, because he claims the guy hasn’t moved for ten years. Who were Archer’s adoptive parents? LOL at Malcolm apparently hiding his illegitimate baby within walking distance.

Robin very listlessly outlines his plan to take Nottingham Castle and hold it for Richard.

At the beginning of this season I said that this was Robin’s slow march to death, and by this point it’s pretty clear he’s Done. He’s holding that dagger like a talisman, preparing for the last hurrah but with none of the excitement and anticipation he should probably feel at Richard’s return, ostensibly what he has wanted for so long. Instead he seems rather wrung out, not quite capable of feeling much of anything, shifting into soldier mode so he doesn’t have to.

It’s also raining throughout these next scenes which actually makes them quite atmospheric.

Guy suggests they use the super secret tunnels underneath the castle that Vaisey had built after returning from the Holy Land. In my alternate season 3 fic which I started writing before this season aired for the first time, I also had Vaisey build under the castle and kill the workers, so this amuses me.

Guy admits that he was the one who silenced the diggers and no one even bats an eye. But I guess in for a penny, in for a pound - if the gang has to overlook the murder of Marian and Matthew, they have to overlook the rest of Guy’s extensive body count.

The guy in The Trip also knows about the tunnels for some reason, and sells the information to Archer.

Oh, I spoke too soon. Kate objects to Guy’s plan, because she doesn’t trust him and thinks it’s a trap. Guy says they want the same thing, Kate calls him out on not caring about the people and he admits to it - he just wants to make Isabella pay.

Now you’d think Kate would be happy about this, since she also harbors (equally unjustified) murderous intent towards Isabella, but instead she snaps “now that sounds more like the Gisborne that we all know and love.”

Robin puts his foot down, reiterating that Guy is one of them and foreshadows that they will share the same fate. He really has gone from “I can never forgive Guy” two episodes ago to “I’d trust him with my life” at the speed of light. But I guess Robin doesn’t do anything my half measures - except perhaps his relationship with Kate.

Kate reiterates that she’ll never trust Guy, Robin asks her to trust him. But what Rebecca said has gotten to her - it’s idiots all the way down this episode apparently, because she knows that Isabella gave her mother the locket, and a bit of critical thinking would have told her it was an obvious ploy.

Or she could just...tell Robin what her mother said and see how he reacts? But that would have solved this stupid subplot too quickly.

And somehow questioning Guy’s loyalty turns into suspicion of Robin’s - but it does indicate that Kate is insecure in their relationship - clearly it is not like she expected and I suspect there’s not much romantic validation in it for her. On screen, all we’ve seen him do is tolerate her.

She’s talking about the two of them (“I’m here, with you”) and he keeps talking about the cause (“you’re helping, you’re making a difference”) and the disconnect between them could not be more clear. It’s also clear at this point that she could have gone back to her family at any time, and the only reason she remained with the outlaws was to be with Robin.

Kate asks Robin to tell her that he needs her more than her family do, and of course he cannot, physically removing her hand from his face and walking away.

Face it Kate, He’s Just Not That Into You. I mean when you ask your boyfriend if he needs you, and he reacts like this it’s time to pack it in.

The Locksley Theme is gently playing while Robin and Kate are talking, but then as Kate finds the locket and put the two pieces together, it seems to turn into a version of Marian’s Theme? Which offends me.

Isabella’s machinations continue - she really is the true successor to Vaisey when it comes to psychological manipulation. She issues a pardon for Allan.

Archer sneaks in via the secret tunnel and offers to trap Guy and Robin for Isabella.

Tuck and John hear the proclamation of Allan’s pardon, and John forgets all about Allan calling him family last episode, playing right into Isabella’s hands.

Much notices Kate is gone, and Robin really could not care less. I’m sorry, I have to laugh, because he literally SHRUGS AND TURNS AWAY.

Much wants to go find her, but Robin says she can take care of herself, and they’ve got a castle to conquer.

John barges in, takes hold of Allan by the throat and calls him a traitor and Judas. This is so hard to watch. He’s your family, John! Don’t be like this!

And in a wtf reaction, Guy is smirking in the background?

Allan swears he hasn’t done anything, and appeals to Much first, and he looks conflicted but says nothing. Then Guy (which sets John off again), who kind of shrugs and looks vaguely amused. Then Tuck, who looks to Robin. And finally, Allan very plaintively says Robin’s name, who has immediately shifted into wide-eyed angry mode and cannot be reasoned with.

“So you think I’m a coward. Is that it, yeah? What that I’ve...sold you out to save myself somehow, yeah?”

Much says what they’re all thinking, that he’s done it before. Allan: “I know, and every day I wish I could take that back, you know that!”

Robin orders him tied up, and angrily says they’ll sort it out when they return. But neither Allan nor Robin will ever return to the camp, and will never be reconciled to each other.

John ties him up and growls at Allan not to look at him as he does so, which is absolutely brutal. Allan also gives a last pleading look to Much

It’s just so unbelievably sad that after everything, they can’t trust Allan, that no one even thinks that this is a ploy by Isabella, and that if he really was a traitor, she wouldn’t be announcing the fact. Idiots all the way down.

I present, for your pain, a tableau entitled Allan’s Heart Breaks in Half.

This scene really, really hurts. Come on gang, family means no one gets left behind!

Especially when it’s followed by the rest of the gang all farewelling each knowing it could be the last time - Tuck gets handshakes, Robin  Much and John all hug, and Guy stands awkwardly in the bakground. It’s just so undercut by the knowledge they’ve just left Allan tied up in the camp, given no benefit of the doubt, no fond farewells. Less grace is extended to Allan than Guy, who was their enemy literally five minutes ago.

However Allan is able to free himself, and no one would blame him if he left these ingrates to their own mess.

Guy shows Robin and Much the secret entrance through a grave.

Isabella gives Archer his money: “If I ever smell your fetted odor anywhere near Nottingham again, I will have you dipped in blood and torn apart by starving dogs.”

She idolises her mother, calling Ghislaine a saint, and: “I will kill a thousand times to keep my mother’s sacred memory pure.” It’s too bad we never got to see little Isabella interact with Ghislaine in 3x10 to support this. This is also undercut by the fact that Isabella destroyed the only keepsake of her mother - the locket - earlier. As always she is a mess of contradictions that the show has no interest in exploring.

Archer assures her she’ll never see him again.

Kate returns home: “I thought I loved him. I didn’t know I could love someone like that.” Um, like what? What exactly has Kate gotten out of this relationship other than to be held at arm’s length?

But this sufficiently guilts Rebecca and she confesses what she did and Kate leaves again.

Allan laments he’s given the best years of his life for nothing, but then sees something unbelievable - it’s Vaisey and his army, but we don’t know that yet.

Two guards ambush him and he fights them, and a nice little moment is him ducking so the guard flips over him - the same move Djaq pulled at the beginning of 1x13. He rushes off to tell Robin what he’s seen.

John and Tuck actually get a nice little moment before the gates of Nottingham Castle. John: “It’s quiet isn’t it? Calm. Like when you’re hunting, the moment you spit you’re prey. Your stag. There’s a stillness, just for a moment, when you wonder whether you can go through with it. Whether you can slaughter this beast with so much...”  Tuck: “Dignity?”

They are joined by the men of Locksley to stop the supply train when it leaves. Tuck’s plan, inspired by John, is non-violent resistance; he makes a speech, finally giving David Harewood something to do after half a season of absolutely zero material

Robin, Guy and Much fall into Archer’s trap, to be buried in limestone. Robin suggests Guy get on their shoulders to try and reach the top, but Much insists that Robin has to be the one to live. Surprisingly, Guy goes along with this.

Allan gives a last smile as he runs from a hail of arrows - but then he is struck by one, then another, and another. He tries to crawl despite being shot in the back and is confronted by Vaisey who we must assume finishes him off. It’s desperately sad.

Back in the limestone, Robin grabs hold of the grating with one hand and tries to pull Much up with the other, but he and Guy are buried.

John, Tuck, and the Locksley men sit down on the bridge as Blamire leads out the supply train and Archer watches.

He appears to be holding some kind of bracelet - what is the significance? It seems like this should have been a keepsake of Ghislaine’s that fuels his twinge of conscience, but there’s no context. If it was, it would have made a nice contrast to Isabella, who destroys her mother’s heirloom, whereas Archer’s prompts him to do the right thing.

Blamire draws his sword but Tuck stares him down. He seems reluctant to go through with it, which seems odd given his true allegiances.

Isabella appears on the battlement with a crossbow and shoots Tuck in the shoulder.

Kate appears, urging the guard to start with her if they’re going to kill them. He’s about to do it, but Archer launches a throwing star into his back they all storm the castle.

Why does Archer have a change of heart? Was he so moved by seeing Kate and the rest offer their lives up? Or perhaps he realised that he would get no more from Isabella and could not manipulate her further, and it would work to his advantage to switch sides and see what he can get out of Robin and Guy.

Archer tells Kate they need to save Robin, and releases the door to let the limestone out.

Kate goes to Robin, performs CPR and tells him she needs him, while Archer helps Guy and then Much (using some kind of elixir to help revive him). She then tells him she thought she’d lost him, and he parrots it back to her.

She reveals her mother planted the locket, and Robin realises that means Allan’s innocent. Robin: “She’s been playing with us all along.” NO SHIT SHERLOCK.

Isabella demands help from Blamire, and it seems he was never really working for her at all. He tells her to deliver Guy to the tunnel if she wants to save herself.

Kate confronts her and they fight. If there was any actual reason for these two women to hate each other it would have felt like an earned showdown, but they don’t, so it doesn’t.

Robin claims the castle for King Richard and and the people, charging Isabella with High Treason and crimes against the people of Nottingham. She’s back in her vulnerable state - hair down, outer armor stripped, laces loosened.

They find Allan’s dead body at the castle gates, but we have no time for sorrows, because Vaisey arrives with his army.

They retreat inside, and to be continued...

This episode was mostly setup for the finale, moving all the pieces into place. Allan’s death wasn’t given the weight it really deserved, the Kate subplot was unnecessary, John and Tuck had a good dynamic but we’re wasting time with Archer. 

There was really no need to introduce him now as a backdoor to next season. There is a precedent with replacing your lead character - Robin of Sherwood ran for another season with Jason Connery after Michael Praed left (and they managed to make the reasoning pretty meta) -  I can only assume Archer was a pitch to the BBC as to how the show could go forward, but it just feels like a waste of time - even when season 4 was in discussions, it was clear Sally Wainwright was unlikely to continue with Archer and it would be a soft reboot rather than true continuation.

So it’s very annoying to bother with Archer, a terrible character, rather than focus the time on the ones we actually care about. Season three in a nutshell!

[momentofmemory]

Of Monsters and Malia: Scott’s Darkness Arc in 3b

for @teenwolf-meta​ week, day one: character study

At the opening of 3b, Scott is in his bedroom getting ready for school. The room is bathed in a warm yellow light, shining in through the open window with Scott’s body silhouetted against it (3x13). It’s a fitting introduction: Scott’s body is backlit, making it shadowed.

When Scott turns around, however, we’re confronted with the first of Scott’s hallucinations: a fist full of claws, made up of Scott’s literal shadow. The shadowed form refuses to leave until Scott balls his hand into a fist, burying his claws away.

The hallucinations only escalate from here. 

When he sees his eyes glowing red in the reflection of his helmet, he’s no longer in the safety of his own home—he’s in the middle of a public parking lot, where anyone might see. Additionally, while he could reassure himself earlier that nothing was really happening simply by looking down at his hands, here he has no way of telling if his eyes are truly glowing. They appear to go away when he blinks his eyes, but does that mean they’ve stopped, or that they were never glowing at all? And if he can hallucinate them starting, could he also have hallucinated them stopping?

Puzzled and unnerved, Scott starts making his way to class and faces his largest, most terrifying hallucination yet: the shadow of a twisted alpha werewolf, bearing down on him and seemingly coming out of him. Scott attempts to run from it, but it’s a shadow; as the Nogitsune will later tell Stiles, “no one can lose it” (3x18).

These three hallucinations tie Scott’s haunting directly to his physical body. Fear of self and the betrayal of one’s own body are central themes in traditional werewolf stories, and have been a facet of Scott’s fears since the beginning of the series. Considering Scott’s recent rise to Alpha (3x12), Scott has even more of a reason to not trust his body, and the line blurs not just between how much of this is real, but how much of this is him.

This all comes to a head near the end of the first act of the episode, when Scott’s hallucinations begin to manifest physically. Scott’s eyes begin to glow uncontrollably in the middle of a crowded hallway—something Scott doesn’t even realize, as Stiles has to point out—and suddenly, everything is horribly real. Scott’s body is betraying him, actively working against his wants and desires and cannibalizing his sense of control. Ultimately, he winds up taking the same path as he did before—he buries his own claws into his fists, but this time, the sharp edges are agonizingly real.

It’s only at this point, when it’s clear that Scott’s loss of control over his shift isn’t just a trick of the light, or even a strictly mental state, that Malia enters the story.

The Sheriff introduces Scott and Stiles to an old case involving a missing girl and her murdered family from some years ago, which he believes might have had some kind of supernatural influence. Sure enough, in the Preserve the boys discover that not only was a shifter involved but that the missing girl was the shifter—and still is the shifter, but locked permanently in her animal form. This a notably detailed backstory for someone who was originally intended to guest star in only two episodes, and the introduction of the concept of being stuck in animal form might even be jarring—except for what Malia means for Scott. While Scott has already shown fear for what an uncontrolled shift might do in a general sense, Malia’s story is a warning for just how long term the repercussions might be if he can’t get a hold of it.

This fear is represented visually when Scott has his first out of body hallucination. As Stiles recounts what happened to the Sheriff—“[she] eventually… becomes trapped inside the body of a coyote”—Scott has a hallucination of himself, out of control and rabid in werewolf form, tearing into eight year old Malia. Malia’s backstory is Scott’s worst nightmare made manifest—locked forever in the form of a monster, with all humanity lost and the blood of his family on his hands.

We see this progression, and Scott’s realization of what it means, through the language he uses to describe his shift. In the school, Scott simply says he “didn’t know what was going to happen” (3x13). On three separate occasions after that, he says he “doesn’t have control.” And then, after the realization of what Malia is, Scott tells Stiles he’s “worried that if I do it, I won’t be able to turn back” (3x13, emphasis added). This is a new, far worse fear—it’s no longer a possibility of briefly losing control and wreaking havoc. It’s losing control forever.

It’s no surprise, then, that at this point in the narrative Scott’s primary struggle shifts from being unable to stop his shift to refusing to shift.

In 3a, even before Scott’s full rise to Alpha, one of the clients at the clinic tells Scott his dog “knows who the Alpha is” in regards to Scott’s easy handling—Scott doesn’t have to consciously use any power, as his mere presence is enough to calm the dog (3x04). But in 3b, despite actually being an Alpha, when Scott and Stiles are cornered by the Tate’s dog Scott is unable to even “glow [his] eyes at it.” As he tells Stiles, he can’t “be the Alpha” because he doesn’t have control (3x13). Additionally, after he has the idea to turn Malia back using an Alpha roar, he says “I could try it on my own, but right now, I’m too scared to even change into just a werewolf” (3x14). Scott has locked his shift down entirely because he’s terrified of what he’ll lose if he doesn’t.

The twins, unfortunately, have missed this memo.

Instead of focusing on Scott’s actual fear, which is losing himself to the shift, the twins only encourage it—literally trying to beat him into giving into his base urges to hurt someone, as if a shift is only maintained through violence or anger. Aiden explicitly tells him he has to “be the monster” and “give in.” The language and methods here suggest that the twins (or at least Aiden) are leaning in to the uncontrolled shift—though not too far, as Ethan cautions that if Scott can’t control it, he’ll “get further and further away from being human,” like Malia, or as Aiden ends, “Peter” (3x14).

Scott does not find this helpful.

Going into the third act of 3x14, all of Scott’s choices seem terrible.  If he lets loose, he might turn into the creature—the shadow—that’s been haunting him, losing all his humanity and potentially murdering his pack. If he keeps his control, Malia will die and he won’t be able to help his pack from any future dangers, not to mention the self harm required to force the shift away. Either way, he seems to be forced to cut off part of himself: the wolf, or the human.

Up until this point, Malia has largely been viewed as an average animal, in terms of her mental capacities—someone lost to her baser instincts, with nothing human left to her at all. Fortunately, just like Malia represents the worst case scenario, Malia also demonstrates that humanity is not easily stripped away.

When the pack goes out to rescue Malia, Scott is separated from his pack and still unable to shift—until Stiles realizes where Malia is going. Malia’s acts, which had seemed recklessly brash for an animal, were actually all about being able to return Kylie’s doll to the car wreck—”it’s like bringing flowers to a grave” (3x14). This is a distinctly human act—one of grief and love, not violence. Even as a girl locked as a coyote for eight years, Malia has still maintained some part of her humanity, instead of becoming a monster.

It’s at this realization that Scott finally allows his shift. It’s easy, natural, not uncontrolled so much as it is instinctive. He shifts into a wolf because it’s part of him, just like he then shifts Malia back into a human because it’s part of her. Scott is an alpha, and a leader, and so his shift is not built on uncontrolled violence any more than Malia’s coyote form is without love. The shapes Scott’s roar urges people to take reflects the kind of person they are. It’s a roar that says I know who I am, and I know who you are, too.

This is also why Scott doesn’t shift back to his human form at the end of the scene—it’s no longer about proving he’s not trapped in the shift, but showing that the shift itself isn’t a trap. He’s just as comfortable in his werewolf form as he is in his human form, because they’re both him.

This realization is reflected in Malia’s final scene of the season.

It takes place in Scott’s bedroom.

Like before, the scene is brightly lit—sunlight streaming in through the open window, warm tones all around. Once again, Scott’s claws take center stage. But this time, instead of his claws representing a threat he can’t control, Scott’s claws represent his own ease with his shift, and his ability to teach Malia to shift. As he tells her after a failed attempt, “don’t think about it too much. Just… try to let it happen” (3x24). While this is similar to the twins’ advice of “giving up,” the tone is entirely different. It’s not about letting something else take control of you, but allowing the body to do what comes naturally.

And it does come naturally! With the renewed sense of confidence and ease from Scott, Malia is able to flick out her claws. Her laugh about it is gleeful, Scott’s and Stiles’ grins delighted.

Claws, in this final scene, are no longer an image of the body’s betrayal of desires, but the fulfillment.

[marjansmarwani]

i just saw the 3x12 promo and honestly i'm pleased that they are addressing the sheriff story from the ice storm. it has bothered me that it was just never brought up it again. do the others even know that marjan witnessed an LEO murder someone?

I’m assuming that she mentioned it at some point, but at this time no, we really don’t know that for sure.

It makes sense considering when the got back to Austin after that she returned to Paul in the hospital/TK dying, and then they catapulted right into Grace missing so yeah, I can see how it didn’t come up right away. But I would hope at some point they’d find some time to debrief and she could let drop with a “oh by the way, did I tell you all how I witnessed a dirty cop murdering a civilian and then blew up his squad car before getting him arrested?”

If she hasn’t had that chance yet she’s about to get it and I for one and happy for her. She deserves a chance to get that off her chest (and I love any opportunity for her to have a storyline)

[htgawmsource]

[sailorbadger]

The Fandom’s Least Favorite Character - an analysis on Kate

Kate is probably the most hated character in the Robin Hood fandom. Not even probably, she is the one who consistently gets the most hate. So, what has she done? Did she commit several murders? Did she kill off a beloved character? Did she do something so problematic that she deserves to burn in hell? Did she do war crimes? No, her biggest sin is existing among unfair circumstances.

The title of this post is kind of a lie. This analysis is not really about Kate as a character, but about how she is written, how the narrative presents her and how this all affects the fandom’s treatment of her. I started writing this because I am sick of seeing so much unnecessary hate for Kate. This is just me commenting on larger trends I have witnessed and a decade’s worth of frustrations finally being written out. If you do recognize yourself from some of my descriptions, I hope that this post will give you something to think about, but just know that this is not meant for any one person in particular.

I’m not going to try to convince anyone to think of Kate as their favorite character. I’m not even trying to make anyone like her. I’m just trying to see why she is so hated within the fandom. So, let’s start off with how it all began. Grab some snacks, you’re going to need them; this is a long one.

 Introduction: Is it all Merlin’s fault?

To understand the context in which Kate was introduced to the show, let’s first look at where we left off at the end of season 2. I’ll start with the in-universe changes first. The biggest change obviously is that Gisborne murdered Marian. This altered the whole course of the show. Marian was such a central part of not only the show but also the Robin Hood legends, that at that point it was obvious that things were going to change. Will and Djaq left the show as well. Them leaving is not as dramatic of a change for the show’s narrative since they were not as central as Marian, but they did make up one third of the gang. This meant that there was a need for new characters to be introduced in season 3.

In our world, things changed between seasons 2 and 3 as well. There was a larger gap in production than before (with seasons 1 and 2 coming out in consecutive years and there being a gap year between seasons 2 and 3), and some of the people working on the show left or were replaced. Robin Hood’s spot on the BBC schedule was taken over by Merlin for 2008 so I guess we could blame that show for everything that went wrong in season 3. (I’m obviously joking here but conspiracy theories are welcome.)

The most important change in my opinion – and I think this is even more important to how season 3 turned out than anything that happened in-universe in season 2 – is the fact that Dominic Minghella was no longer writing or producing the show. It’s surprising to me that the fandom as a whole doesn’t ever really talk about this, when in many other fandoms creators or showrunners leaving the show are usually a big deal and mark the end of an era. I myself only found out about Minghella’s departure from the show before season 3 this year, but it seems to explain a lot on why season 3 felt so different from seasons 1 and 2.

With all that out of the way, the stage is set, and it is time to look at how exactly Kate came into the show.

 Six boots, two feet

Season 3 starts off with my least favorite episode of the whole show (see my episode ranking for more details). It tries its best to address the events of the season 2 finale, but in a way that will let it quickly get to the season 3 storylines. Unfortunately, the things that happened at the end of the previous season were so important that they would have needed several episodes to cover the full impact of the events.

Kate herself is introduced in episode 2. She is immediately given a reason to hate the villains and join the fight when her brother dies. She doesn’t join the outlaws right away, but when she does, she essentially has to take over three roles at once. I do not think it’s a coincidence that I think episode 4 is Kate’s best episode and that she’s at her best before she actually joins the gang. That is the point in the show when she is allowed to be her own character rather than someone who is trying to fill a void.

Like I said, Kate has three roles to take over; she gets Djaq’s spot in the gang as “the girl one”, Will’s role as “the peasant with personal connections to the people’s suffering” (and interestingly, since Kate’s family is around, her connection could have been even stronger than Will’s) and Marian’s as “the love interest”. Since the season 2 finale got rid of both of the only female characters in the show, it was inevitable that they would eventually be replaced if the show wanted to include any romantic storylines (it was, after all, 2009, so queer representation was out of the question). With three pairs of boots to fill, and only two feet, it should not come as a surprise to anyone that Kate can’t possibly do it all alone. The show does introduce Tuck and Isabella as well to help fill the gaps, but I think Kate gets labeled as “the replacement” far more often than the other two.

 A triangle without a base is just an angle

Kate had all the potential for a good plotline. Her brother died, making her hungry for revenge, yet this part of her is only sprinkled in every now and then instead of being a part of her character arc. Instead, she is made a part of not one, not two, but three love triangles.

I’ll start with the Much/Kate/Allan one. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t actually exist. All sides of this “triangle” are… weird. The writers try to frame it as a legitimate love triangle, when only one person in it seems to have any real feelings for another character. Much is shown to be interested in Kate, but we as the audience are never given a reason for why he likes her or even how he fell for her. I guess we’ll just have to take his “I fall in love very easily” (from 2x4) quite literally. Kate does not seem to have any romantic feelings for Much, and she seems oblivious to his feelings as well.

To be honest, I don’t think Kate ever really saw Allan as an option either. At best I could admit that maybe she had a slight attraction to him, but I never got the impression that it was something she would seriously pursue. I don’t think Allan was seriously interested in Kate either. His flirting with her is quite similar to his joke-y flirting with Marian and Djaq. My friend and I talked at length about this, but Allan doesn’t seem like the type of person to flirt for real. This could be a whole analysis on its own, so I won’t go too deep into it here. But I don’t think Allan considers Kate a legitimate romantic option.

So, this “love triangle” only exists in Much’s head and in the narrative the writers try to force on the audience. The Kate/Allan side of it is practically dropped the minute Kate/Robin becomes a thing.

Then there is the Much/Kate/Robin/Isabella triangle that is not a triangle either. I already covered Much/Kate for the most part, so I won’t go into it. Since the Robin/Isabella relationship is not that central to Kate’s character, I won’t bore you and myself by going through it that deeply. The buildup for that relationship is practically nonexistent, and so is the end of it. The whole Robin/Isabella relationship feels forced, because the writers didn’t know how to properly replace Marian while coming up with something new.

Kate’s crush on Robin seems to develop out of nowhere as well. It looks like a pattern when it comes to romances this season. Robin himself doesn’t appear to have any romantic interest towards Kate until he and Isabella “break up”. After that point, their relationship progresses way too fast. It doesn’t help that they seem to have no chemistry between them, and Robin treats Kate like a child and then five seconds later proceeds to make out with her.

Honestly, if Kate had to have a romance with a character on the show (and with it being 2009 obviously they could not fulfil my dreams of Kate being bi but that’s beside the point), it should have been with Archer. The two of them had more chemistry in the 30 seconds they worked together in 3x12 than Robin and Kate had the entire season. It would have also made me far less uncomfortable, since the characters would have been closer in age. Which brings me to my next point.

 “There is only one thing worse than a rapist – a child”

How old is Kate supposed to be? Seriously, this show can’t seem to make its mind about her. In general, I do not trust anyone’s age on this show unless it’s been stated somewhere. I know some people try to base the characters’ ages on the actors’ real ages, but to that I say, “fuck that”. Archer is the best example of the fact that this show did not even try to cast people who are the right age, or even look the part. (Seriously, he does not look even close to being 20.)

That being said, Kate is written like she is both 15 and 25 at the same time. I don’t know if the writers had a specific age in mind when they were writing her, but there is a huge difference between those ages. I think it’s the most reasonable thing to assume that she’s in her late teens, maybe at most in her very early twenties. She is still living with her family (I know that most women at the time married in their 20s but it’s not like this show is concerned with historical accuracy) and her behavior is a little immature at times. With all that said, I hope it doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone that I find it incredibly uncomfortable that all the men that are presented as possible love interests to her are fully grown men.

It is the most obvious in Robin and Kate’s scenes. Like I said earlier, Robin treats Kate like a child and speaks to her in a condescending way, only to then make out with her in the same scene. I must wonder why the writers didn’t just age up Kate. I think it would have been more interesting to make her someone who is already married, and instead of losing her brother, it would be her husband that dies. Of course, I would prefer it if Kate didn’t have to be a part of any of these love triangles to begin with but aging her up would have made the dynamics far less uncomfortable. (I do have to also point out the fact that Meg is also written like she is a teen girl. The show then tries to pair her off with Gisborne, who is even older than the men Kate is being forced into love triangles with. So… yikes.)

 Let’s take a break, drink some water

Let’s take a moment to recap what we’ve learned here. First of all, Kate entered the show in unfair circumstances and with only two feet to fill three pairs of boots. She was only ever allowed to be a part romance plots, and she didn’t get a proper character arc of her own. In general, the women in this season were not written well (not that seasons 1 and 2 were the height of feminist television either), and they were reduced to being love interests or tools to further the male character’s plotlines. Without Dominic Minghella involved and with a full year between seasons 2 and 3, the show lost some of its charm. Unfortunately, this meant that Kate was not the best written character. But I do not think she deserves all the hate the fandom has given her over the years.

 Interlude: Doctor Death

Before I get too much into how the fandom has reacted to Kate over the years, I feel like I should explain my own history with this show and the fandom surrounding it.

I started watching the show when it was first airing here on TV. It was some time during season 2, and once I had seen my very first episode, I watched all the following ones as well. With the finale, there was a problem. I had seen 2x12 and knew that the final episode of the season would air the next week. I was so excited for it, but then my mother decided that we would all go out and have dinner. I kept looking at the clock all day, hoping I would make it home in time. I got home just to see the credits rolling. I’m still a little bitter about it.

After this, I was desperate to see how the season ended. I’ll remind you that this was before it was common for shows to be put online officially. Streaming wasn’t really a thing yet. I did the only thing I knew what to do; I went to YouTube. The thing is, I did not know that what I had been watching was the second season of the show. So, you can imagine my confusion, when I find the very grainy version of 1x13 on YouTube and start watching it. Eventually I figured out my mistake and watched 2x13. At some point I watched season 1 as well, but I honestly don’t have that many memories of when I first watched this show. My clearest memory is being betrayed by my own mother when she forced me to go out for dinner.

Since I do not remember what year this all happened in, I did some googling and if I’m correct, season 2 aired here for the first time in the summer of 2009, with reruns in the summer of 2010. Because I have no other memories for context, I can’t say whether or not season 3 was even out in the UK at the time. Anyway, I did not watch season 3 for a few years. I also didn’t engage with the fandom until 2012, when I joined Tumblr. (A side note: while trying to find out when season 2 aired, I found the episode titles and descriptions. Apparently 2x4’s Finnish title was Doctor Death. There were some real gems on that list but this one was my favorite.)

Over the years, I had read bits and pieces about season 3 on the internet. I was still upset about the end of season 2, and the things I read did not make me want to watch season 3. Sometime in 2012-2013 I finally gave in and watched season 3. I was mostly disappointed by the season as a whole, and as for Kate specifically, I found her annoying. In the fandom, I went along with the Kate-hate that was popular in the fandom at the time.

I did a full rewatch of the show with my friend in 2016–2017. During that time, I didn’t hate Kate as much as I did before. Maybe it was that I had a fresh perspective, maybe it was that I had matured in those few years. Who knows? I was mostly disappointed by the bad writing. Even back then, I wished that Kate had been given a proper chance.

The next proper rewatch of the whole series I did was this past winter. I watched the show in a non-chronological order with someone who had never seen it before. This time, I was angry at the writers and found myself half-ironically becoming a Kate-stan. I also began to really pay attention to how the fandom has talked about her over the years and was unnerved by the hate has she gotten.

So, here we are. Time to take a look at how the fandom has treated Kate. Most of this will be based on my own experiences and memories, so if someone else has a different point of view to offer (especially from the early days of the fandom while the show was still ongoing), feel free to comment! I just wanted to give you my own history with the fandom to show that I have indeed been around for most of the fandom’s history.

 The hate-train for Kate-town leaves from platform 4

It seems that from the very beginning, Kate was disliked. I remember reading negative comments about her way back in the early 2010s (I would try to look for examples, but I just spent 30 minutes trying to find out when season 2 first aired here and it’s currently 1am so I am not spending any more time googling right now). There are fics that make fun of her and how badly she was written, and most of the jokes and dislike about season 3 seem to always come back to her. This attitude has been present in the fandom in other contexts as well. Over the years, the hate towards Kate has come and gone along with the popularity of the fandom.

Every once in a while, someone has tried to either write Kate better or even see her as a character that was let down by the writers. Mostly this has not led to any significant change in the fandom’s attitudes. I feel like whenever some of the older fans outgrow their Kate-hate by either just maturing and realizing it’s pointless or just not wanting to waste their time making fun of her, new fans come in and start the whole thing all over again.

I am grateful, however, that the general consensus in the fandom seems to be (at least in the year 2021) that the actress is not to blame for Kate’s faults. It still does make me uncomfortable that people go so far as to cross out her face on pictured etc. just to show how much they hate the character. This hate that Kate gets feels very misogynistic at times and is at least partially the result of the show’s misogynistic writing, but the actress deserves no negativity for playing Kate.

 What about Isabella?

One thing that is very interesting to note is that while both Kate and Isabella were newcomers in season 3 and were both replacements for Marian in the sense that they were love interests for Robin, only Kate has received a significant amount of hate over the years. So why does the fandom not hate Isabella?

I think that a big reason for why Isabella is tolerated – not necessarily liked, I haven’t seen too many people genuinely enjoying her character – better than Kate is the way the narrative treats them. Kate is essentially forced down our throats. The show is so desperate for us to like her that they end up making her unlikeable. Isabella, on the other hand, is eventually made into a villain, and thus we’re not meant to sympathize with her in the end anyway. (I could write a whole rant about how Isabella’s treatment in the narrative is bad but let’s not do it here.) Isabella also has the advantage of being Gisborne’s sister, so her backstory ties better into already existing characters. I think it’s reasonable to say that Gisborne being a fan-favorite in certain parts of the fandom doesn’t hurt Isabella’s case either.

Isabella is also only involved with Robin, while the show keeps pairing Kate off (unsuccessfully) with almost half the cast. I think she was written in a way that reminds people of Mary Sues, and considering how fandoms tend to not like characters like that, it’s no surprise that Kate got all the hate she did.

 Murder and being annoying – they’re the same thing, right?

So why exactly does the fandom hate Kate so much? Obviously, the writing is a big reason. Season 3 is not written well, which means that Kate is not written well either. She doesn’t really get a storyline of her own, and instead her main purpose is to be someone else’s love interest. I would also add that Kate doesn’t really get hate for her personality. Most of the hate that she gets in terms of character traits revolves around her being annoying, but that’s not really a personality trait. So I think the issue is not her personality, but her role.

The next reason won’t surprise anyone who has spent as much time in fandoms as I have: Fandoms do not like female characters. Well, I should probably rephrase that. Fandoms tend to hate female characters more easily than male characters. I’m not going to analyze too deeply on why this is, as I’m sure someone has already done research on this with references to actual feminist theory. There is a lot of internalized misogyny in fandoms, and female characters get hate for even the slightest wrongdoing, while male characters who commit far worse crimes often have a strong fanbase that will defend them despite these flaws, especially if said male character is played by a conventionally attractive man.

Kate is also blamed for things such as breaking Much’s heart, even though she was never really aware of Much’s feelings in the first place, so it was definitely not intentional. She’s blamed for every small wrongdoing in a way other characters in the show are not. I’ve seen people criticize Kate for small things that she has not even done on purpose. Some of these people then also go on to ignore the fact that Gisborne has committed several murders, taken part in the oppression of the poor and done many many more atrocious things, and paint him as a more sympathetic character than Kate. I understand if you do not like Kate, but it feels misogynistic that the female characters are held to different standards than the male characters. I can already hear some of the Gisborne-fans saying “but I acknowledge his actions and think what he did was wrong! I just find him to be a misunderstood and/or interesting character”. To those people I will just say: Why are you not applying this same logic for Kate? Why are you making outright hateful comments about her? If you don’t like her, why not just ignore her? If you are a Gisborne-fan and have never made these comments about Kate, this obviously doesn’t apply to you. And even if you aren’t a Gisborne-fan, but you do recognize this way of thinking in yourself in regard to some other character, I encourage you to think about it critically. I just used Gisborne as an example since I know he’s perhaps the most popular male character in the fandom (at least if Ao3’s numbers are anything to go by). I’ve also seen a similar attitude from a lot of Allan-fans, though in their case the hypocrisy is often not as obvious, but I’ll return to Allan in a moment.

Many female characters end up getting hate because they get in the way of a popular (often m/m) ship. In this regard, Kate is kind of an outlier since she doesn’t exactly do that, since there isn’t really a ship to get in the way of. Sure, she’s eventually paired off with Robin, but Marian is already dead by the time she shows up, and if people were truly bothered by someone other than Marian trying to get Robin’s attention, they would also hate Isabella with the same intensity. I do think there is one “ship” Kate does come in the middle of, and here’s where we get back to Allan.

Now, the ship Kate does get in the middle of is not in fact canonical. I am of course talking about the popular Allan/OC trope. If you go on Ao3 or Fanfiction.net, you won’t have a hard time finding fics where Allan is paired with an OC. This is understandable, seeing that the show only has four main female characters to begin with, one of whom is already in a love triangle with other people, one of whom canonically ends up with someone else, one of whom is actively hated by the fandom and one of whom just does not interact with Allan.

I want to make it clear that I think it’s fine if people want to come up with their own OCs for the purpose of shipping them with existing characters, it’s just not my thing, especially when those OCs are any level of self-inserts. (I personally don’t feel the need to ship Allan romantically with anyone. I just tend to not like OCs in any fandom.) Since Kate is presented as a potential love-interest for Allan, I think many fans who would rather see Allan with their own character or even themselves view Kate as an obstacle or a threat.

As you may see, this fandom, like many others, unfortunately treats the women in the show differently from the men. Male characters like Gisborne are viewed as redeemable so long as they are attractive, but Kate is irredeemable for… breaking Much’s heart and/or getting in the way of Robin/Marian or Allan/OC? This is something that really bothers me. I don’t mind the fact that people don’t like Kate, it’s the extensive hate she gets that makes me uncomfortable.

 Conclusion: Where do we go from here?

Like I said in the beginning, I am not asking anyone to say Kate is their favorite character or to even like her. I just wanted to provide some things for people to think about regarding how they treat female characters. I think it’s about time the fandom took a proper look at itself and critically thought about how it speaks about female characters. It’s 2021, let’s not hate on female characters just for being a little annoying or getting in the way of shipping.

I haven’t seen the fandom analyze that much why season 3 is the way it is. I would love to see some meta about how Dominic Minghella’s departure and other behind the scenes factors contributed to the story and aesthetics of season 3. I would also love to see some actual analysis on the season 3 characters that isn’t focused on tearing them down. If the fandom never made another post about how terrible Kate is without providing any actual reasons, I would be happy. I can sort of understand this immature hatred coming from 15-year-olds, but I’m disappointed to say that I have seen fully grown adults tearing down Kate in this quite misogynistic way. I know that many people do not intend for their dislike of Kate to come across as misogynistic, but it does not erase the fact that that is how many of those hateful comments appear.

I think Kate had a lot of potential. Season 3 had a lot of potential. It is quite a move to kill Marian in the middle of a Robin Hood story, so they had the chance to take the story to all kinds of places. Unfortunately, the season 3 we ended up with was not of the same quality as the previous seasons. Instead of just hating on the characters or story in general, I think we should focus on really analyzing the season, and even coming up with our own ways of improving it. Many people have already done this (though unfortunately many of these attempts also include thinly veiled hatred towards Kate. It’s your story, why are you not treating her any better than the actual writers of the show?), but there’s always room for more takes.

At this point I will shamelessly advertise my own “Kate should have been the new Nightwatchman” theory and my Nightwatchman-fic. I wrote the latter in a way that would let it be a part of canon if necessary. I think that by refocusing the story and shifting the way we read the text, we can find new aspects of season 3, and perhaps even enjoy it more. That is what happened to me during my latest rewatch, and all it took was watching it in a non-chronological order and talking about it with someone who had never seen the show.  

I’m not trying to gatekeep the fandom and say that only thought-provoking analysis or fix-it fanfiction is allowed. I just feel like people should be more conscious of the message they are sending out when they write hateful comments about Kate, censor her name or even cross out her face from pictures. Is it actually funny? Are you contributing something to the conversation? Is it actual criticism or just hate for the sake of hate? You don’t have to start writing posts in the defense of Kate, but you can just start ignoring her. It’s not that difficult. It’s fine to make jokes, but let’s start thinking about what our jokes say about us.

I once more want to emphasize that this is not a callout post I wrote with any one person in mind. So, if you felt offended when I was talking about Gisborne-fans, Allan/OC-shippers or Kate-haters in general, I can assure you that this post was not about you personally. This is not about any individual person. I’m just commenting on trends in the fandom I have noticed over the years. I don’t think any of you have committed any sins or that you need to be cancelled. I just hope that if you did feel guilty reading this, you’ll realize that maybe this post was something you definitely needed to read. As a woman, I would love it if this fandom worked on getting rid of its internalized misogyny.

I’m not claiming to be right on all of this, in fact I have a lot of bad opinions as well. I hope this post has provided people with things to think about. Feel free to use this as a starting point for your own meta or analysis. I’ll end my rant here, and leave you with this thought:

Kate had a lot of potential to be a good character. She did not let us down. The writers did.

[itsclownhours]

okay so i don’t know if i ever mentioned it but while watching merlin i’ve used a google doc of weird title ideas to rename all of the episodes and now that i’ve finished the series i would like to share with the four people who always like my posts the absolute nightmare that is the contents of this google doc (spoilers ahead, technically, i think)

merlin Things Historians Pretend Aren’t Gay: The Unlikely Adventures of Bitchface and Go Fuck Yourself

1x01 the dragon’s call Neither Boss Nor Employee Paid Enough to Deal With Each Other

1x02 valiant Everyone Should Learn First Aid (This Has Been a PSA)

1x03 the mark of nimueh Let’s NOT Wipe Out Humankind

1x04 the poisoned chalice I Fell Into a Deep Hole

1x05 lancelot You’re Valid, I Support You

1x06 a remedy to cure all ills This Is Absolutely the Right Decision

1x07 the gates of avalon I Go For an Unwanted and Unexpected Swim

1x08 the beginning of the end The Small Child Is Annoying

1x09 excalibur Ya Dun Goofed

1x10 the moment of truth The Regular Fuckface Returns to the Town of Fuckface

1x11 the labyrinth of gedref Guys, It’s Been Three Weeks Since I’ve Eaten a Vegetable: My Destiny as a Bad Cook

1x12 to kill the king Ultimate Showdown: Murder Father versus Murder Daughter

1x13 le morte d’arthur Dreams Do Come True (And That’s Not a Good Thing)

2x01 the curse of cornelius sigan The Good, the Bad, and the Okay I Guess

2x02 the once and future queen The Broken Ribs Poked Our Lungs

2x03 the nightmare begins I Need an Explanation, What Is Going On

2x04 lancelot and guinevere I Approve (This Time)

2x05 beauty and the beast part 1 This Wasn’t the Family Meeting That I Was Expecting Tonight

2x06 beauty and the beast part 2 I Am Saved From Certain Death By Being Killed

2x07 the witchfinder Those Stories Aren’t Real

2x08 the sins of the father How to Traumatize Your Children: 7 Proven Methods to Help You Screw Up Your Kids Deliberately and With Skill

2x09 the lady of the lake Can’t Wait to Tell This Story to My Grandchildren

2x10 sweet dreams Getting Distracted by a Hot Girl Only Leads to Bad Things

2x11 the witch’s quickening The King Can Go Fuck Himself

2x12 the fires of idirsholas Everything is a Goddamn Ordeal in This Family: Top 10 Anime Betrayals

2x13 the last dragonlord I Turned Out Liking You a Lot More Than I Originally Planned

3x01 the tears of uther pendragon part 1 Ask and You Shall Receive...Sometime Next Year

3x02 the tears of uther pendragon part 2 In Which Everything Goes Wonderfully Wrong

3x03 goblin’s gold Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly-True Memoir)

3x04 gwaine This Is Why I Don’t Socialize

3x05 the crystal cave Man Miscast in Role of Father

3x06 the changeling Successfully Evading Responsibility

3x07 the castle of fyrien The Dumbasses Take a Road Trip

3x08 the eye of the phoenix Tone It Down a Bit, Geez

3x09 love in the time of dragons Hey, Look, Old People

3x10 queen of hearts Running From Your Dad: I Know Exactly What I’m Doing (No, I Don’t)

3x11 the sorcerer’s shadow You’re a Special Kind of Stupid, Aren’t You?: Merlin Makes a Rash Decision

3x12 the coming of arthur part 1 Orphan Does Her Best to Fit in After Horrible Childhood

3x13 the coming of arthur part 2 There Is Absolutely No Way It Can Get Worse (It Got Worse)

4x01 the darkest hour part 1 Oh, Look, a Ghost

4x02 the darkest hour part 2 Unfortunately, I Am Alive

4x03 the wicked day Didn’t See That One Coming

4x04 aithusa I Wasn’t Prepared For Parenthood

4x05 his father’s son I Stab a Bitch: Aggressive Negotiations Make Everyone Hate You

4x06 a servant of two masters And God Said, “Let’s Not Give This Bitch a Break”

4x07 the secret sharer Apparently, Agravaine Does Have Some ’Splainin’ to Do

4x08 lamia The Boys Are Here

4x09 lancelot du lac I Call Shotgun (Said the Dead Man)

4x10 a herald of the new age Possession or Obsession?

4x11 the hunter’s heart I’m Bitter and I Won’t Stop Whining (Solitude Was the Only Logical Ending)

4x12 the sword in the stone part 1 I’m Packing Up My Crayons and Leaving

4x13 the sword in the stone part 2 A Guide to Giving Up

5x01 arthur’s bane part 1 My Boy!

5x02 arthur’s bane part 2 My Boy! Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

5x03 the death song of uther pendragon Way to Go, Dumbass

5x04 another’s sorrow Live Every Crisis Like It’s Your Midlife Crisis

5x05 the disir Why Am I Like This?: Merlin Is a Fucking Bitch

5x06 the dark tower What the Hell? I'm in Hell (I Have a Heated Make-Out Session With My Lifelong Enemy. Who Would’ve Thought?)

5x07 a lesson in vengeance You Know That There Is Nothing That I Love More Than Just Chilling and Drinking Poison. Seriously. I’s Great

5x08 the hollow queen An Unexpected Visit Leads to a Change in Career Paths

5x09 with all my heart A Trip to Memoryville (I Hate It)

5x10 the kindness of strangers Don’t Accept Rides From Strange Relatives

5x11 the drawing of the dark Why Didn’t I Just Walk Away? Oh, Right. Because I’m an Idiot: In Which Merlin Fucks Up

5x12 the diamond of the day part 1 We’ve Been Tricked, We’ve Been Backstabbed, and We’ve Been, Quite Possibly, Bamboozled

5x13 the diamond of the day part 2 How to Mistakenly Assume You Have Everything Under Control

[antigonewinchester]

two fics i’ve recently enjoyed.

“Salve Regina,” by anactori. “AU. Nancy escaped the massacre in Monument, but there's no getting away from the things she's seen. When a supernatural murder reunites her with the Winchesters, she realizes she isn't the only one who's haunted.”

3x12 au, where nancy isn’t killed by lilith at the police station, and then encounters sam and dean again in s4. lovely expansion of nancy’s character, how her experiences have changed her outlook on life & faith, and her outsider perspective on dean and sam.

“He Can Read Your Mind Backwards,” by biketest. “Dean drops acid, but it’s not awesome and psychedelic. It’s terrifying.”

pre-series fic where dean drops acid and sees his future. pitch perfect use of some horrific dramatic irony, and i love its strange, trippy style. short but very dense with references and resonance.

[orarewedancer]

I'm good at everything I do.

Michaela Pratt, How to Get Away With Murder 3x12

[televisionpromos]

How to Get Away with Murder 3x12 "Go Cry Somewhere Else" Sneak Peek #2 - Annalise's Parents pay her a visit in jail. Ophelia Hartness (Guest Stay Cicely Tyson) tells Annalise about the conversation she had with Nate. Her parents ensure her that they'll do everything they can to get her out. Annalise's mom even wants to take the fall for the fire. 

[ricamora-falahee]

#fashion on point

[springmagpies]

Welcome Back to my Uncle Reacts to AoS--Season 3

It has taken my Uncle months to watch season 3 as his schedule is super busy and what not. But we have finally watched it all and are on to Season 4. Anyway, here are some of his reactions to the third season of Agents of Shield

3x1

*Fitz comes to the lab after his excursion in Morocco* Coulson is like a father waiting in the dark kitchen. Where’ve ya been, Fitz?

*After the Do something scene* Ouch.

Is she on another planet? She’s on another planet. Guys, she’s on another planet!

3x2

He got her back! Oh my god, he got her back. Fitz is the man.

Hunter is the best.

Bobbi is the best.

Fitz is the best.

Oh, Coulson.

*About Jemma* What the hell happened there? What did she eat? She was there months right? Holy shit.

*Fitz sitting by her bed* Oh, Fitz.

3x03

My aunt: you two seem sad. What happened. Steve: Lincoln, Kate. Lincoln killed his friend and he didn’t mean to. And Jemma has ptsd. It was a lot of emotion. My aunt: ...

3x04

Yess May. Great timing. That’s all you needed.

3x05

Dammit, Will is hot.

She’s talking to Fitz? Cute!

3x06

Pauses the show uhh, Andrew turned into lash and kicked some ass. Calling it.

*Later* Called it.

3x07

“He does have a hog face.”  Bwhahahaha. That’s amazing.

Well that episode was emotional. The Fitzsimmons thing was so heart warming. And poor May.

3x09

Ward, you asshole. Why can’t they let Phil be happy.

3x10

Shit that’s not Will.

*At Ward’s death* Finally!

*Wards back* Freaking knew it. God dammit

3x11

What is Fitz 3d printing back there? Cool inhuman conversation but what’s he making?

*Anytime the subtitles are wrong on Netflix* That’s not what she said. That’s not what he said. That’s not what they’re saying.

*Steve understanding the Spanish and knowing what they’re saying without subtitles.* That is not what she said, subtitles.

*About Elena* she’s a badass.

3x12

Thank god for Hunter.

Ward is just creepy as hell. I know that’s not Ward, but it’s his stupid face.

3x13

Amadeus Ravenclaw Hunter. That’s fantastic. Is that really his name? Wait, no. Forget I said that. Ravenclaw is not his name.

Wait, so Bobbi and Hunter are just gone? But they can’t do that. They come back right? They’re the best, they can’t leave.

Mack’s crying the hardest.

That guy that’s supposed to be tailing them is very bad at his job.

Now I’m sad.

3x14

*Mack mentions friends being transferred” Aww, Bobbi and Hunter.

Repeats “It’s a building.” In Scottish accent. *laughs* that’s great.

Uh oh Fitz does not like Daisy’s methods of interrogation. He looks so uncomfortable.

A shotgun ax. Holy shit that’s amazing.

That dudes a hologram! Coulson knew. He’s a genius.

3x15

Holy shit we’re seeing the future.

*Hive melts the business men* Eeww, ugh that’s horrific. Aaah!

*Andrew becomes lash permanently* Oh no! Poor May. That’s so sad.

Wait, I bet you it’s not snow. Bet you it’s ash. *Snow is actually ash* Called it.

*Quinjet vision* That vision is familiar. Where have we seen that? Wait, that was at the beginning! Oh shit, that’s the future! Shit!

3x16

*Young Malick and Nathaniel appear on screen.* Maggie tries not to freak the frick out at Nathaniel so as not to spoil season 7.

Steve: oooh, does his brother get volunteered as tribute or something?

*Daisy explodes the mines in front of James house.* Badass.

*Reveal that Malick betrayed his brother* That’s why Ward had the stone! He knew! He remembers the betrayal! Oof, not looking great for Malick.

I hate Ward. Whatever he is.

Shit! Is he killing Malick daughter! That’s way more brutal than killing Malick! Ooooh, evil.

*Lincoln’s past is explained* See, I’m glad he’s sharing, but how do you bring something like that up in conversation normally. Glad their talking, but I get it.

*Giyera escaping from the containment pod* Fitz, please get away from the guy trying to escape. Please. Oh crap he’s got a seatbelt.

*Mack gets knocked out* Oof, Mack. Poor dude.

*Secret Warriors Assemble* Yes! I’ve got to put the baby to bed but then next episode!

3x17

Sorry Joey, I don’t think you’re going to finish that date. You’ve got to go fight people.

Whoa! Lincoln’s powers got even cooler.

That felt a bit too easy.

*Fitzsimmons flirting* They’re cute.

*Mackelena flirting* He’s speaking Spanish. Kay, that’s sweet.

I don’t think Joey is okay. He did kill that Medusa dude.

*reveal that one of the inhumans are swayed* That’s what he meant by someone on the inside! That’s not good. Now they’re all looking suspicious.

*Fitzsimmons find Malick’s body* Is he dead? Holy shit, was there a bomb! Shit!

“Aren’t you a spy, learn Spanish” Hahahahaha! Yes! That line is genius!

Okay, they are pushing for it to be Lincoln waaaay too hard.

*Fitzsimmons soft kiss in the bunk* *Steve Fist pumps* Yessss!

Uhhh, why is Daisy out of her cell. It’s her! Oh no.

Way to go Lincoln on the character growth. Staying for SHIELD!

Is Daisy going to fly? Oh no, she’s destroying the base. And she ruined Fitzsimmons make out session. And she’s bringing the base down. Also that.

Noooo! That’s it? That cliffhanger! *upset that we have to wait to watch the next episode*

3x18

“It’s risky, and irresponsible” Hahaha, May smiles.

Nice flying May!

*FS talking about sex* “I’ll see you in the quinjet” Hahahahahahahaha. That’s amazing.

*Hive talks* That’s not creepy. You know what happened to the last girl Hive kissed. Daisy run.

“Because all you are is big and strong.” Hahaha, Fitz is all pissy about it. Amazing.

Oof, Lincoln just can’t get Coulson’s approval.

Maggie: Fitz is so handsome Steve: He really is

*FS ending scene* Yessss!!!! Finally!!!

3x19

Inhuman backstory!!

Why are they all such jerks to Lincoln? Like, he just cannot win with Coulson and May. No one is nice to him. Except Fitzsimmons, they’re nice to him. Okay, and Mack.

*Piper is introduced* Red shirts aren’t red shirts! That’s awesome!

Oh, Mack, what are you doing? Please don’t get hurt. Daisy please don’t hurt him. Mack noooo!

Wow, Shield is just struggling on all fronts. Daisy’s missing, Mack’s injured, Lincoln’s sick—Wait no after credit scene?! Dammit!

3x20

Okay, they seriously need to lay off Lincoln. Like, he is not a bad dude!

Now I see why they can’t get help from the avengers.

Yo yo is awesome.

Fitz having to play whack-a-mole with security. Gosh, they’re going through it.

Lincoln, nooo! You’re smarter than this! Your character growth! Oh, thank god it was part of the plan.

Yes! Lash! Badass!

Oh my god he’s saving Daisy! Yeah!!!

No!!! Lash!!!!

He couldn’t just have killed Hive? I guess we need a finale.

Andrew saved Daisy!

Shit, he’s got a warhead. Ward’s trying to destroy the world again.

What’s Elena giving Mack? No! Mack put that down! Put the cross down!

3x21

That’s right, Shield is good at what they do.

They done pissed off an alien.

Fitz is amazing.

Fitzsimmons should go on that vacation. Take a break.

Oh no the cross! The jacket! Fitz put it down!

Wait, she wants to go back?! Daisy, nooooo!

3x22

Ooh Yo Yo no!!! She took a bullet for Mack. Yeah, she is not okay.

Shit, they’re going to use the torch to cauterize the wound. That’s majorly going to scar.

Why do I kind of like Radcliffe?

Oh, May was about to be super nice to Daisy and she gets hit over the head.

“You were a murderous wank before all this” Okay, that line’s amazing

Did Fitz cloak a gun?! That’s amazing!

Aaaah, the jacket! Can they stop freaking me out with the jacket?!

I like how they pan from the window so they don’t have to break it for real.

Don’t get rid of Daisy!

“Help me Obi Wan Kenobi” Oh my god, that’s incredible.

Badass shield team is badass.

You know the person who plays Daisy is a great actress.

Wait. wait. Wait. Lincoln. Lincoln? Noooooo! They can’t kill Lincoln. They’re not going to—they can’t. But I loved Lincoln! Nooo!

*Steve is quiet for a long moment* I loved Lincoln.

*Flash forward* Is Daisy on the run?

Director? What? Phil’s not the director??

“No Aida that’s not what we’re celebrating” It’s your birthday. “Today’s your birthday.” CALLED IT! Wait, are we going to have robots?

Shit, we lost a lot of people that season.

Crap, I want to watch the next episode!!